Stool video

Well here is the first of a few videos that I hope to get posted soon. This is a real quick overview of the stool that I just finished for a private client.

Please to be enjoying

Back to reality..

Well it's good to be home. All though it is really cold down here in Tassie. But it is great to be back with the family. It was also nice to have a good shave again. I thought I would experiment and let the beard grow for awhile. Well these pictures are as long as it got. I had to cut it back, I couldn't take it anymore.



I thought I would share the project that I was working on for the time I was in Sydney. Tracy is trying to get a couple of lines of furniture started. So I spent the week building a prototype of a coffee table for her. I actually made the frame, while a fellow student Fiona Perry veneered the tops.



The table is a really contemporary design that I really like. It's very asymmetrical. All the frame piece have a 5 degree taper on them. This was achieved by building to jigs, one with a 5 degree slant. Which you placed the piece of wood on and sent it through the planer. Then there was another 5 degree sled that was added on top of the other sled and then the wood was flipped over and sent through again. Thus giving us a 5 degree taper on both sides of the table.

The entire table was built using the Festool Domino system. And man is that a cool tool. This tool is going to make building furniture so much faster.

The table frame is made of Australia Blackbute, the top is walnut veneer.



I have a couple of videos that I am going to post here soon. I have a little editing to do. One is of Tracy's workshop and the other is a short film on my stools. I hope to get those up sometime this weekend.

So until then.. don't forget to have your pets spade or neutered.

News Update

Well I just found out that my stools almost didn't make it down to the show. I guess what happened was the guy that was going to take them down, ended up not getting his work done. So another fellow student ran them down for me. So a special thanks goes out to Tristen Fields for saving the day. I owe him dinner or something.

I also finally heard back for a gallery here in Tasmania called IXL, they seem to be interested in my stools as well. So I hope that comes through.

I also there school has just put out a newletter with a few nice words about me and my stools. Just go the schools site and click on the newletter.

I spent the day yesterday going to Bungadore Woodworks Gallery, and have to say that I wasn't really impressed. They are the leading gallery here in Australia, but there product seemed very dated and to traditional. After that we went to the nations capital here, Canbera. We got a personal tour through Parlament house by Jono Everret. If you remember he was our first teacher this year. It was really good to talk to him again. He is a very encourging person.

Well I'm on the plane back to Tassie tomarrow. Can's wait to see the family and relax a little before the next big wave of projects comes up. I do have what I think to be a really cool idea for our cabinet module. I have had a great time up here in Sydney and have to thank Tracy and Max for the wonderful time. If you are here in Austarlia and are looking for anything to be made or would like to take some woodworking classes, give them a call. Just click the link to there website on the side bar.

Until next time folks. Remember tired drivers die!

Workin' for a live'n

Well week one is over and man has it been a great week here in Sydney. First off I spent last sunday at the wood show, and man here was alot of good stuff. I ended up buying a HnT Gordon shoulder plane. Man is it sweet, I will post some pictures of it when I get back to Tassie.

The rest of the week has been spent building a few tables for Tracy to take to some of the galleries around here. The on that I am woring on is really interesting in it's design and making. We have discovered lots of little traps and procdural errors along the way. So I hope to get that done here soon. I will also post some picture of that. Tracy spent the a few days making a really sweet looking side or end table.

The thing that I have learned most over this last wekk is that I really want to do this for the rest of my life. I completely enjoy waking up and heading straight out to the shop and working until night time and then going in eating and going to sleep.

Anyways, I took a good video of the shop and once I get back and do some editing and stuff I'll throw that up here as well. So until then, clean out your ears because you'll want to hear me when I arrive.

Kaleo

P.S. Please excuse the spelling errors. For some reason, blogger doesn't allow Safari to run that.

D-Day

Well D-day came and went without a hitch. Everything went according to plan. I guess you could say that I planned it that way. I delivered the set of 4 stools to the gallery. They were extremely happy because I got them done quickly. I did them in 3 weeks from the day they ordered them. They told me that usually they tell the buyer 4-6 weeks and by the 8th week the buyer starts to worry. So the fact that I got them done quickly makes the gallery look good.

I also got 2 stools done for the exhibition. And I got them all crated and ready for delivery. I have to thank a fellow student for helping me out.

Well it's off to Sydney and to Tracy Gumm's workshop and the Sydney Wood show. I hope to take some good videos of the show and Tracy's shop. But I won't be updating anything until next month most likely. So please be patient and I promise some good stuff then.

Via con Dios

Great Video..

I found this video on Fine Woodworking a month or so ago. But it has just been uploaded on You Tube. So I thought I would post it here to for your viewing pleasures. The name of the Designer/Maker of this chair is Jared Rusten. I love his work and have been able to exchange a few emails with him. He has some very inspiring designs. My Nalu stools were inspired by this chair. You can see more of his work at www.jrusten.com

And now for your viewing pleasures:

One week left.

Well there is one week left until I leave for Sydney. I was starting to worry that I might not get everything done in time. I started out the week with all the parts cut and to size. I spent Monday gluing up the side frames to all 7 stools. Needless to say this took a lot of time and a lot of clamps. I didn't have enough clamps to do them all at once. I could only do 2 stools at a time. So I started with the Celery Top Pine ones first. Because this gave me the chance to cut all the tapers for the exhibition set while the glued dried.

So I made a real simple taper jig. Basically it was a straight piece of MDF that had a tapered fixed fence and a stop on it. So that the taper that I wanted to cut hung of the side. I then ripped the taper on the Hitachi Resaw machine. I used this because blackwood is prone to burning, and the table saw would have burnt it. I then used the joiner and jointed the tapered edge smooth. It worked great.

Tuesday I finished gluing up all the sides and did some sanding to the ones that were already dried.



Wednesday I spent the day in the car. I rented a chair to go down to Hobart and pick up some supplies. I had to go and pick up some 1.8 mm plywood to mold my seats out of. Then I had to go the leather shop to get the last of the leather that I used. I took the whole day, because Hobart is a 2.5 hour drive one way.

Today I finished all that I had to before glue up the stools. And then I glued them up. I also made 4 of the 7 seats that I need. I have to glue together 5 pieces of that 1.8 mm plywood and then use the vacuum press and mold them over a former. It takes about 2.5 hours for the glue to dry. So getting one in at 9, 11:30, 2, 4:45. So that will give me something to do Monday.



Well if all goes to plan I should get both sets done before I go. Which would be great. If things go wrong then I will only get the three that are going to the exhibition done and the set of 4 will have to wait until I get back. The good thing is that they aren't due until the 5 of July. So I will have a couple of days when I get back if needed. But let's hope not.

Be good all,

Kaleo

Weekly update.

Well it's been a good week. I've spent the majority of the week trying to get all the parts that I need to get the two sets of stools done. I had to track down some Celery Top Pine for the set that was ordered from the Gallery. I found a really good timber mill here and ordered on Monday at lunch time and received the timber on Tuesday at lunch time. So it was good to get it quick. This week I dimensioned all the timber for both sets and began the finger jointing. I have to go down to Hobart to get the leather that I need and also the plywood. So I plan to make a quick day trip on Monday and get all that.

I've had a good opportunity this week to be a part of a lot of photo taking for the school. Simon our head of school has a really good eye for photography. He has taken some shots of my chair and stool. So let me know what you think of the shots.

There are a couple of shots with some of the chairs of my fellow students. They are the chairs of Fiona Perry and Jye Edwards. The other kid in the photo was really there waiting for the bus.

Goodnight and stay classy...